Friday, October 30, 2009

Powerful uses of viral video

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending a San Diego American Marketing Association event covering businesses using viral video to raise awareness and build their brands. The keynote speaker was Dan Novak, VP Global Marketing, Communications and PR at Qualcomm. Dan was an entertaining and influential advocate of his company’s use of viral video. He was also modest and quick to give his marketing team and agencies credit for the ultra creative work. Dan presented what has become an incredibly successful series of viral videos for Qualcomm that were released around April Fool’s Day for the past two years and just before one of Qualcomm’s biggest industry conferences. The two viral videos proved to be paradigm shifting for what you’d think Qualcomm might produce. Viral videos Handsolo and Convergence break down any preconceived notions of stodginess from a Fortune 500 leader like Qualcomm.


The results of releasing these award-winning viral videos have been tremendous, including:

1) Enormous Industry Buzz – As they say with social media “you don’t communicate to your audience, you communicate through your audience.” These videos passed like wildfire through exactly the stakeholders Qualcomm would like most to reach – all the bright technical people in their ecosystem.

2) Household Name Recognition – These videos were also picked-up by bloggers and trackers of April Fool’s Day videos and extended to a still wider audience who may know little about Qualcomm.

3) Employee Pride – Staffers were able to wallow in the “cool” factor of their company. This was especially true for the Convergence video which used real employees.

4) Recruiting New Talent – Aside from being fun introduction videos any Sales Person would kill to show as an icebreaker, these videos do volumes for Qualcomm efforts to recruit the brightest talent coming out of today’s colleges and universities.

5) Creating Pent-up Demand for the 2010 Video – Awareness has moved to expectation; Qualcomm’s stakeholders are pining to know what kind of video this April will bring.

These and other Qualcomm videos are available on the Qualcomm website “video wall” which is very reminiscent of the brightly lit Qualcomm “Patent Wall” that glows like a beacon at night from their headquarters.



ROI sticklers in the audience wanted to know the revenue payback measures of these viral videos for Qualcomm. Dan responded with statistics surrounding the explosive number of views and visits to their site and even the less specific brand awareness improvements coming from efforts like these and everything else Qualcomm does to support their brand. In the end, it is hard to put a $ value on efforts like these to know if they work. But based upon the positive response of everyone in Qualcomm’s eco-system, Qualcomm executives can rest easy at night knowing their brand is thriving from programs like the viral videos.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Cure JM recognized for fundraising success at the Chicago Marathon http://ping.fm/oBEOz

Friday, October 16, 2009

Persistence and the Payoff

One of my very favorite quotes is from Calvin Coolidge who said...


“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”


Time and again this quote has proven to be so true in my career and personal life. So it is no surprise that last weekend persistence paid off, yet again, in the Hume family. Shari, my beautiful, intelligent and always running (literally) wife, was racing in yet another marathon. It was the Chicago Marathon and she was running for Team Cure JM. This was the second time she ran Chicago for the Cure JM Foundation and it was her 10th marathon to date. Count them, 10! Several years ago (probably around her 4th marathon), Shari decided if she was going to inflict this much pain on her body anyway, then she would try to qualify for the Boston Marathon. For the non-marathoners reading this, the Boston Marathon is the Holy Grail of marathons because to qualify for Boston you have to not only run marathons, but you have to run them FAST. The qualifying times are very challenging and for Shari they were alway elusive. One year, she ran 3 marathons trying to hit the qualifying time needed. In one of those marathons, she missed qualifying for Boston by only 5 minutes! Heartbreaking for all of us, but especially Shari. So at Chicago last weekend she went in as a dark horse; no one expected her to have a good race. She just ran a marathon in January (the Carlsbad Marathon for Cure JM) and spent much of the summer nursing injuries. The longest training run she did for Chicago was 10 miles. So while her body was not up for the task of running the Chicago Marathon, Shari was secretly putting her mind in gear to qualify for Boston. When a doubt arose in her mind that she did not train enough, she squashed the doubt by telling herself “yeah, so by not practicing long training runs, my body has less injuries and more strength.” She also thought of all of the children battling juvenile dermatomyositis and the marathons they battle everyday just leading normal lives.


Through shear mental fortitude and the experience of her 9 previous “training marathons,” Shari crossed the finish line with a whole three minutes to spare toward her Boston Marathon qualifying time. Impressively, Shari finished in the top 25% of the 45,000 runners registered for the Chicago Marathon. Over her past 15 years of marathon running, Shari never took her eyes off the prize and last weekend, she reached this monumental goal. Now she is already talking about her next big goal.


My three boys are very proud their Mom qualifyied for Boston. Equally, I am very proud of her qualifying time, but I’m even more proud of the example she sets for her sons to pursue your dreams and never give up.


Never, never, never give up. - Winston Churchill



Wednesday, October 7, 2009

The New Marketer’s Toolbox – insights from Duct Tape Marketing

In John Jantsch’s Duct Tape Marketing Post from Wed Aug 26, 2009, John gave a list of 16 sites and/or tools to better manage your social media marketing activity and even general productivity. The list included:

Google Alerts
Central Desktop
Google Reader
TweetDeck
Firefox
Flickr
Snapz Pro X

Adium
ScreenFlow Pro
su.pr
Email Center Pro
Jott
SimpleNote
WordPress
Google Analytics
InfusionSoft

I’ve referred so many people to this list via tweets, emails, and (dare I say it) hard copies, that it was time for me to reference it here. For the full article and detailed descriptions of the tools above, go to the Duct Tape Marketing Blog.

Enjoy!

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Location, Location, Location: Google Place Pages: Big Deal You May Have Missed


Location, Location, Location: Google Place Pages: Big Deal You May Have Missed

All small businesses need to capture their physical location on the internet. Sources like Yahoo Directories and Google Maps have allowed business to not only show where they are but to give a little more detail about who they are and why a customer should care.

Now Google Place Pages pulls brick and mortar businesses online whether they like it or not. They now all have a web page which in many cases may be quite simple information, but all the better reason to engage with Google to claim that listing and potentially turn into an AdWords client.

If you have not captured or edited the sites pointing to your location from the web, do it today. Most of these sites are free.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Twelve Quick Uses for Social Media in the Marketing Mix

I constantly meet with SMB owners who confide in me that they “don’t get twitter”. Sometimes they are outspoken about their feelings that social media has yet to find its place in business. However, in most cases they admit (with a feeling of guilt) that they just have not figured out the value. Yet, they know others have found value. In Michael Kahn’s article A Dozen Applications for Social Media from the Chief Marketer site, Michael summaries why business should care.

Here are the 12 uses he promotes:

1. Listen to Your Consumers

2. Talk to Consumers Face-to-Face

3. Brand Yourself as an Expert

4. Monitor and Respond to Customer Service Issues

5. Manage Reputations, React Quickly to Crises

6. Create Massive Conversations about Your Brand

7. Dominate the SERPs

8. Optimize Ads to Perform … Just like Search

9. Microtarget Ideal Users

10. Harvest Data With Custom Apps and Sweepstakes

11. Promote Coupons and Deals to Sell Products

12. Create More Engaging Display Ads

I’ve long advocated that small businesses should get into social media first by listening to customers; so it’s no surprise to me that “customer service” uses of social media rise to the top of Michael list. If you are not doing any of these things, it is time to take your head out of the sand. Your competitors are doing it already but if you’re lucky maybe your competitors are less focused on the customer service applications.

Here is the link to Michael’s article… http://chiefmarketer.com/disciplines/online/0922-social-media-applications/

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Good Karma, Good Business

Last week, I heard a speaker present on the subject of business networking and good Karma. Now, whatever your feelings are about fate, destiny or Karma, this speaker made some very irrefutable points about influencing others with selfless behavior. As she postulated, the top three ways to rack up "Karma points" (my words, not hers) are to 1) help someone with a health issue, 2) help someone financially and 3) to show genuine interest in someone's children (such as being a coach, teacher, scout master, etc and really truly helping their child). The more I thought about it, the more I knew this was true. From my own experience in helping families through the Cure JM Foundation, I know my family has received even more benefits from good fortune and inward strength to battle JM. And I am sure you've had an experience mentoring a younger colleague or helping to find someone a job which has come back to ultimately benefit you. In fact, I'd argue LinkedIn is built on this premiss. But what truly drove the point home for me on a world-wide scale was an article I read in this month's Mental Floss Magazine, http://www.mentalfloss.com/magazine/. The article, titled "How to Win Friends and Inoculate People" is about the Navy's new mission to export medical support to countries around the globe.

"As you read this, U.S. Navy ships the size of shopping malls are cruising full-speed toward troubled ports, ready to invade. But the professionals on deck aren't snipers or SEALs; they're highly skilled doctors and nurses acting on orders from the Pentagon. "

The article stated, in just 2 1/2 months, the navy treated 100,049 people, 13,238 animals, conducted 1,657 surgeries and filled 135,000 prescriptions in Central and South America. These are called Soft-Power missions. Of course these types of mercy missions are not new for the United States. However, the mega-scale of these new Soft-Power missions may be foreshadowing a radical foreign policy shift. And not to be out done, other countries, like China, are following suit.

"During the Cold War, superpowers fought for control of the Third World by selling arms and staging coups; today, they're competing to be the world's best helpers."

So bringing it closer to home, what have you done today to launch your "Operation Good Karma"? You and your business will be better for it.




Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Videos on the cheap

If you're looking for a cheap way to get video content on your website or in demostrations and you don't have the staff or editing capability, try http://www.pixability.com/. They have an offer where they will send you Flip Camera, you shoot your video (demos, customer success stories, product shoot-outs, etc.), you send back the Flip Camera and they will edit the video into a nice package to be posted on your website, social media sites or simply to DVD. This is a must for any small business with zero video content on their website. They have different packages but most are under $500 for the service.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

A must follow blog

Whether you are doing marketing in a large company or a small business, you will find benefit from following John Jantsch and his Duct Tape Marketing blog. I truly learn something new every time I visit his site or receive his RSS feed. Check it out.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/s/#4Aoac3/www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/2009/07/14/tracking-your-customers-social-media-activity//

Friday, April 24, 2009

Connecting with your target market

This video was passed along to me by a friend. It comes from an industry publication that I am the exact target buyer for. It is brilliant because it connects to me so well. So why mention it. Because sometimes reaching your exact target audience can be fun and emotional. Even though this video uses very specific industry corporate-speak it does it like no one else does. So it gets credit for being relevant and unique. Just watch...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P89E1F7tryU

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

How to get your press release noticed by search engines..

In an earlier blog, I mentioned a powerful website called www.websitegrader.com that you can use to evaluate how optimized your website is for search engines like Google, Yahoo and many others. Well the clever people who created websitegrader.com have come up with another tool that you’ll find useful for your company’s press releases. If you cut and paste your press release into the application at www.pressreleasegrader.com you can determine (before you send out your press release) if your press release will be found by major search engines. You’ll get customized tips on simple changes you can make to your press release that will increase the visibility of both your press release and your company on the web. Give it a try, it’s free. For kicks, I tested a couple of Sage Software press releases and I must admit they did well…..music to the ears of John, our VP of Corporate Communications.

A cheap and easy website evaluation tool

Want to get your website noticed by search engines? – Here is an easy, powerful and FREE tool to get you started.


How's your website doing? If you're among the ranks of the incredibly web-savvy, you can probably answer that question with a mind-blowing array of details about your search engine rankings, visitation rates, average time visitors spend on each page and the number of other sites connected to you. If you are among this “web-elite”, you have no doubt learned to leverage a multitude of free programs on the web to help you determine the effectiveness of your website or you program these tools yourself.


So what if you want greater visibility for your website, but you’re not a web search guru? I found a great site that puts together a very thorough report about how effect your website is versus your competitors. It is called http://www.websitegrader.com/ and of course, it is free. Well, almost free. You have to give them your email address (however, you will not receive any spam as long as you do not opt in). The report you’ll get details your web pages that are not downloading well, the effectiveness of your metadata, headings, and images, your search engine rankings, and other sites connected to you. Plus, you’ll get a bunch of suggestions to make some minor changes to your site in order to get a big lift in your rankings.



As I said, there are other similar tools like this available on the web. I've just found http://www.websitegrader.com/ to be the simplest. Tell your customers about this site too.